The 50 Best Australian Films ever Made
by dahlmandaniel | created - 27 Oct 2014 | updated - 27 Oct 2014 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Last Ride (2009)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy travels across Australia with his father, who's wanted by the law for committing a violent crime.
Director: Glendyn Ivin | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Tom Russell, Anita Hegh, John Brumpton
Votes: 2,608 | Gross: $0.01M
2. Sleeping Beauty (2011)
TV-14 | 101 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A haunting portrait of Lucy, a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.
Director: Julia Leigh | Stars: Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Bridgette Barrett
Votes: 34,617 | Gross: $0.04M
3. Idiot Box (1996)
R | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Looking for the fast track out of suburban hell, two natural born losers scheme an impossible heist. Two undercover cops and a highly strung speed dealer are not far behind.
Director: David Caesar | Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, Jeremy Sims, John Polson, Graeme Blundell
Votes: 915
4. Two Hands (1999)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A 19 year old finds himself in debt to a local gangster when some gang loot disappears and sets him on the run from thugs. Meanwhile two street kids start a shopping spree when they find the missing money.
Director: Gregor Jordan | Stars: Heath Ledger, Bryan Brown, David Field, Tom Long
Votes: 13,656
5. Gabriel (2007)
R | 114 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Gabriel the archangel fights to bring light back to purgatory - a place where darkness rules - and save the souls of the city's inhabitants.
Director: Shane Abbess | Stars: Andy Whitfield, Dwaine Stevenson, Samantha Noble, Michael Piccirilli
Votes: 14,271
6. The Rover (2014)
R | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
10 years after a global economic collapse, a hardened loner pursues the men who stole his only possession, his car. Along the way, he captures one of the thieves' brother, and the duo form an uneasy bond during the dangerous journey.
Director: David Michôd | Stars: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, David Field
Votes: 51,155 | Gross: $1.11M
7. Animal Kingdom (2010)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A seventeen-year-old navigates his survival amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.
Director: David Michôd | Stars: James Frecheville, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton, Bryce Lindemann
Votes: 60,484 | Gross: $1.04M
8. Candy (2006)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance
A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
Director: Neil Armfield | Stars: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Budge
Votes: 47,734 | Gross: $0.04M
9. Beautiful Kate (2009)
R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
A writer reawakens his childhood trauma from the past when he returns home, at the request of his estranged sister, to grieve their father's impending death.
Director: Rachel Ward | Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe, Maeve Dermody, Rachel Griffiths
Votes: 4,083
10. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community escape a horde of bandits.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps
Votes: 193,607 | Gross: $12.47M
11. Mad Max (1979)
R | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley
Votes: 222,213 | Gross: $8.75M
12. Gallipoli (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins
Votes: 41,945 | Gross: $5.73M
13. Broken Sun (2008)
TV-14 | 93 min | Drama
The film, set in 1944, follows Jack, a WWI veteran, whose lost hopes and values lead to isolation and an empty feeling that is too hard to shake. This solitude abruptly ends when he meets ... See full summary »
Director: Brad Haynes | Stars: Jai Koutrae, Shingo Usami, Kentaro Hara, Kuni Hashimoto
Votes: 122
14. Romper Stomper (1992)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A group of skinheads become alarmed at the way their neighbourhood is changing.
Director: Geoffrey Wright | Stars: Russell Crowe, Daniel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Alex Scott
Votes: 41,610 | Gross: $0.18M
15. Samson & Delilah (II) (2009)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Romance
A glue-sniffing boy and his girlfriend escape the government-controlled no-hope Aboriginal community they live in and go to the city, Alice Springs, looking for a better life.
Director: Warwick Thornton | Stars: Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson, Mitjili Napanangka Gibson, Scott Thornton
Votes: 3,763
16. Wake in Fright (1971)
R | 109 min | Drama, Thriller
After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay
Votes: 13,953 | Gross: $0.05M
17. Bootmen (2000)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Charismatic tap dancing Sean tries to find a way out of working at the steel mill. When failure brings him home he starts his own dance group wearing hardhats. He must then find inspiration in the steel mill he once tried to escape.
Director: Dein Perry | Stars: Vaughan Sheffield, Christian Patterson, Lisa Perry, Sam Worthington
Votes: 2,477 | Gross: $0.02M
18. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 299,270 | Gross: $57.39M
19. Proof (1991)
R | 86 min | Drama, Romance
The life of a blind photographer who is looked after by a housekeeper is disrupted by the arrival of an agreeable restaurant worker.
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot, Russell Crowe, Heather Mitchell
Votes: 7,124 | Gross: $0.52M
20. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Music
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Director: Stephan Elliott | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Rebel Penfold-Russell
Votes: 54,997 | Gross: $11.22M
21. The Hard Word (2002)
R | 102 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
3 brothers are in and out of prison in connection with heists planned by their lawyer et al. He gets them out for the heists and "looks after" the money and one's wife.
Director: Scott Roberts | Stars: Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton, Damien Richardson
Votes: 3,881 | Gross: $0.42M
22. Ned Kelly (2003)
R | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
An innocent man becomes one of the most wanted criminals the world has ever known.
Director: Gregor Jordan | Stars: Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts
Votes: 28,087 | Gross: $0.07M
23. Daybreakers (2009)
R | 98 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
In the year 2019, a plague has transformed almost every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher works with a covert band of vamps on a way to save humankind.
Directors: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Harriet Minto-Day
Votes: 134,975 | Gross: $30.10M
24. Red Dog (2011)
PG | 92 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Based on the legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.
Director: Kriv Stenders | Stars: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Rohan Nichol, Luke Ford
Votes: 19,421
25. Lantana (2001)
R | 121 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
The relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.
Director: Ray Lawrence | Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Blake, Kerry Armstrong
Votes: 20,222 | Gross: $4.46M
26. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Mystery
During a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse
Votes: 41,009 | Gross: $0.23M
27. The Proposition (2005)
R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Western
A lawman apprehends a notorious outlaw and gives him nine days to kill his older brother, or else they'll execute his younger brother.
Director: John Hillcoat | Stars: Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Richard Wilson
Votes: 54,977 | Gross: $1.90M
28. Wolf Creek (2005)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.
Director: Greg McLean | Stars: Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, John Jarratt
Votes: 78,325 | Gross: $16.19M
29. Somersault (2004)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, Romance
A young girl flees her hometown and arrives in the Australian Alps, where new experiences help her learn the differences between sex and love.
Director: Cate Shortland | Stars: Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran, Damian de Montemas
Votes: 8,192 | Gross: $0.09M
30. Noise (I) (2007)
Not Rated | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
This is a story about the wrong person in the right place at the wrong time. Two heinous crimes have left a suburban town reeling.
Director: Matthew Saville | Stars: Brendan Cowell, Maia Thomas, Katie Wall, Maude Davey
Votes: 2,761 | Gross: $0.02M
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